AIBU To wonder why and on what basis we attribute colour

pollyperkins

People answer the door and describe the caller so that the wanted person can better identify who it is. The postman, the man next door wants a word, a woman with a Russian accent...etc.
Don't tell me you've never asked 'who is it? when someone other than you answers the door and says 'there's someone to see you mum', or similar.

Joelsnan You are wrong.
We are not the same beneath the skin. Bones are slightly different in shape, skull is different, blood has different characteristics etc.

I want to know why the vast majority of persons of mixed race ie: BlackAfrican/White English or even 1/4 white (which used to be called mulatto/mullato) identify as black. I have yet to hear a person who has one parent who is black and one white, call themselves white.

I think sometimes it is simply a description -if someone said to you in a crowd 'which one is David? ' you might say the tall man wth the beard or the fair haired man in a blue jumper. It would be crazy not to say the black man over there as that would be the most obvious thing if he was the only one. However there is no need to mention it otherwise as for example on a recent thread someone said an Asian family in the street is noisy -is the fact that they are Asian relevant? Somone at work once said to me there's a coloured gentleman waiting to see you - why not just a gentleman? If its relevant to the conversation yes its ok, not otherwise. You wouldn't say a red haired man has come to see you or a tall woman is waiting to speak to you so why mention the colour?

I can’t imagine who would describe a Chinese person as yellow. It was used historically and in derogatory manner, ‘yellow peril’?
Thanks to Gerispringer for your posts, you’re right, like it or not, skin colour defines us.
Icanhandthemback - like you, my understanding of the reality of slavery and it’s legacy in America was better informed after visiting former plantations and the African American museum in Washington DC.
As for seeing it as ‘rude’ to mention skin colour, and suggesting ‘inner city’ (for which read black ) is somehow responsible for the decent into calling black peopke black - I despair

How the term of description is used makes a big difference, it's the discriminatory term that you cannot use and that applies to any grouping. Applying a derogatory term, lazy, idle, stupid or many much worse, cannot be used with, Black, Woman, Gay or even Old.
I visited a factory a few years ago, the workforce was mixed, Black, Asian and Albanian the foreman was using every swear word you can think of and a few more besides but never referring to race, he was abusing them all equally!.

Is Megan black? Dad is white, mum is mixed race so the Duchess of Sussex is probably 75% white, her ancestry does not seem to have disadvantaged her.

It's astonishing and embarrassing to hear someone's skin colour being mentioned as if they are different to white skin. When I was growing up it was never a problem. I grew up in a rural area and it would have been considered rude to mention skin colour. My sisters and I had friends from a variety of nationalities and I doubt we ever noticed skin colour unless in the choice of make up!. Where did this come from? From inner city music?

I felt a lot of the use of language was a political hot potato rather than truly offensive until I visited Memphis. A trip to the Civil Rights Museum was illuminating and put a lot of the angst that black people might feel into perspective. I was horrified that the things that were happening were during my lifetime. Is it any wonder that Black people may feel anger about how they were treated?
Later in the holiday we visited a Slave Haven and this really brought home the sheer horror of anybody brought up with slavery. The most poignant moment for me was when they explained that children under 4 could not be used as slaves but they still had a job to do...as a foot warmer for the owners. How utterly degrading would that have been and summed up how the slave owners didn't consider young, innocent children as human beings. They had a lesser station in life than the dog.
I'm not a great one for atonement of our sins committed by our forefathers but I don't know that there is a respect great enough to make up for slavery but if a change in our language is the price, it is small change.

This is surely a matter of language use and what has become over the years culturally acceptable/ unacceptable.

sarahhellenwhitney of course it might be helpful in identificationwould, however, you wouldn't describe a Chinese person solely as yellow.

Description of a person has to be essential if they should go missing or committed a crime.You cannot just rely on it is or was a male /female.

But like it or not people are defined by their appearance and skin colour is part of that. Of course this shouldn’t be the case but discrimination based on skin colour does have a long and brutal history which can’t be denied. Its all very well saying black people can be racist as well, of course they can, but recent history is of white domination and exploitation and this has shaped many of the social relationships and problems of inequality today.

It is handy to have a word that describe a person’s cultural heritage as that contributes so much to who they are. ‘Black’ is useful in so far as it refers to some social aspects of families with African roots, however distant, but ‘African’ is so much better and as a reference to culture it could theoretically also apply to people of any colour, even white, who came from that culture. Likewise growing up as a person of colour can be a very different experience ( due to the way people react to you) to growing up ‘white’ , (this applies to anyone growing up in a minority setting and in some ways this argument is similar to that in the thread on calling youself a woman).

Just as a matter of interest, until recently, African albino babies were often killed or shunned ( as were twins).

Americans still refer to a tarmac surface as blacktop. Don’t you just love them for calling a spade a spade?

I passed a black sheep amongst a flock of white ones, yesterday - should I call it a sheep of colour?

Scientifically, white light contains the wavelengths of all colours and black light contains none, so who is a person of colour?

Legs55 I'll join you

I am slowly losing the will to live & I'm only 62. I haven't a clue how define people in a "politically correct way" either by colour or gender (see previous post re MP). Think I'll just sit quietly in my home & speak to no-one

Apricity your post emphasises my point that most people are defined (if necessary) by their origin. Why do people of African origin have to be defined as Black no matter how dilute this part of their heritage may be. Caucasians are referred to as White, but not to the same extend and in UK you never hear of other races defined by their colour. I wish we could get away from this and not use skin colour to define a person.

My gd is mixed culture, so I suppose it’s a lovely light tan colour, I don’t know.
She is doing an essay on colourisim apparently African girls don’t like mixed culture girls, apparently they are far more attractive she has been spat at in the street, given dirty looks.
We are quite shocked to learn of this and what she has been telling us is quite sad really.

Just people at the end of the day.....

The whole concept of "race" has now been completely debunked- we are all descended from that first African Eve and are all part of one global family whose members made adaptations to the conditions of the different environments lived in and moved through over hundreds of thousands of years. It is as simple and as complex as that.

We also have cultural affiliations and in multicultural Australia I am an "Anglo Australian" as all my ancestors migrated from the UK and Ireland. My half Italian grandchildren call me Nonna so I am the Anglo Nonna. In Oz it is common to talk about someone as being Greek Australian or Vietnamese Australian or whatever is relevant. It is simply acknowleding and celebrating the cultural link to our own family's heritage.

None of this detracts from the fact that all countries have dark and cruel pasts that cannot be denied and need to be faced and understood. That too is part of our shared history.

I can't remember the title of the book but it described the arrival in the UK of one the young "Windrush" immigrants in the 1950s and her subsequent life. I read it many, many years ago but always remember her being massively disappointed that Brits weren't white at all, but, as she described them, pinko-grey.

and it still goes on
That is the point I was trying to make; I was not denying the systematic way the European slave trade operated.

Yes, by BonyM, & they obviously didn’t think so.

Bluebelle This has been brought to my attention. Having not been exposed to the extremes of PC for a while I was unaware of the term not being PC. I have since researched it and it's offensiveness not clearly defined as are all of the other terms attributed to this phenomena. Some of the other terms on here are, by some considered not PC. My vocabulary is obviously old school so apologies to any multi-racial, bi-racial or whatever the correct term is today if I offended you. I truly did not intend to do so.

Does anyone remember this song?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAWn4FO1MOw
One of the comments says it has been banned by the BBC because it's racist.

I didn't really want to get into slavery and white imperialism. But we appear to have slid into it.
pollyperkins I had your preconceptions about white imperialism until I travelled and lived in some of these countries (not Australia). In India I found that there were nearly as many who wished that they were still a British colony as were happy with independence. Indians retained their culture and religions and talk of the structure, democracy, education, healthcare, railways etc. that UK brought to them.
In South Africa apartheid surprised me because I thought it was purely black exclusion yet there were places where whites were not allowed to go to. A 'Black' South African friend actually had better educational opportunities than me from a UK mining village she having a degree and working in a Middle Eastern country that I also worked in, this gained throughout the period of apartheid.(I still don't fully understand why it was imposed or agree with it) white South African friends talk of fear, murders etc. and if you go there today you will note all of the security measures homeowners have to take. Kenya considers itself a 'good' nation (and it is) and retains much of the British influence.
I can't talk about Australia, America or South America. I have to say my preconceptions were challenged.